The Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership is one of 28 National Estuary Programs across the county.

The National Estuary Program (NEP) was established by Congress in 1987 in amendments to the Clean Water Act. Its primary objective is to protect estuaries of national significance that are threatened by degradation caused by human activity. The program is administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency which provides funding and technical support to the local NEPs. Local NEPs must be collaborative, locally driven entities that address the complex and competing issues facing the water body.

The NEP home page, as well as information on estuaries, and links to all of the individual programs within the NEP can be accessed through the NEP web site.

The NEP was one of the first major shifts to watershed management. Local NEPs, including the Estuary Partnership, work at building community based processes to implement environmental protection programs with specific actions to address environmental problems. To date, there are 28 estuaries in the program.

The National Estuary Program:

• Embodies principles of sound land use management and environmental protection and addresses local environmental issues;
• Empowers citizens to take responsibility for a natural resource, with assistance, not direction from federal government;
• Gives a structure and forum for all citizens to work together as a community and transcend individual differences; and
• Requires measurable on-the-ground efforts to improve the water body's ecological integrity considering the chemical, physical and biological systems, as well as the economics, history, demographic and social issues.

The goal of an estuary program is develop and implement a management plan for the study area. The plan must identify specific actions to address priority problems. It also must identify parties to implement the actions, a plan to ensure implementation occurs, and funding options for each action.

There are four Phases of a National Estuary Program: Convening the Management Conference, or committee structure of the program; Characterizing the Estuary and Defining Priority Problems; Developing the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan; and Implementing the Plan. The Estuary Partnership completed the Management Plan, including phases 1-3 in 1999, and is implementing the actions in the Management Plan. Most actions have been initiated and progress has been made on many.